Trap



J. TURPAN Feb. 16, 1943.

TRAP

Filed Dec. 6, 1941 HINVENTOR. James Iuvfian ATTORNEY:

Patented Feb. 16, 1943 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE TRAP James Turpan,Paterson, N. J.

Application December 6, 1941, Serial No. 421,888

2 Claims.

This invention relates to traps, as ratand mouse-traps, for instance,and it follows a well known construction in so far as it includes, witha base, a loop or generally U-shaped clamp pivoted to the base to movein an upwardly curved arc and normally spring-urged into coactiveclamping relation to the base but adapted to be held set by a leverpivoted to the base and to traverse the free end portion of the clamp soas to hold the latter in clamping or set state when the lever is itselfheld against freeing the clamp by a suitable detent readily moved torelease the lever when the rodent disturbs the bait associated with thedetent, usually by being carried thereby. But according to my invention,instead of the bait being carried by the detent, the latter is to coactwith the lever to clamp the bait, thereby holding the clamp in itsactive or set position, whereby when the bait has been sufiicientlyeaten away or moved by the rodent the trap will be sprung; and, further,the detent is pivoted to the base so that it may lie prone thereon in.the sprung state of the trap so that the latter will have a quitecompact form for packing with others in small compass. The mentionedU-shaped clamp is usually difiicult to set because its cross-bar, inorder effectively to clamp and destroy the rodent, should in its sprungstate lie flat against the base and close to its edge. According to thisinvention I further provide the clamp with a projection or projectionsextending beyond the base thus to provide a convenient finger-hold forshifting the clamp in setting it. I accomplish these objects,furthermore, so that the trap is at least as inexpensive, if not moreso, than others of its class.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the improved trap in set state;

Fig. 2 is an end elevation thereof; and

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the trap in sprung state with the detentupstanding or out of the positions it would normally assume in suchstate of the trap. V

l is the base, being a flat rectangular slab of wood, as usual. Thespring-urged clamping means here comprises the U-shaped clamp 2 and thecoiled spring 3 both formed of wire, and these parts may be formed andassembled in the usual way so that the spring tends to hold the clamp inthe position of Fig. 3 while permitting it to be pivotally displaced tothe position of Fig. l, to wit: One end of the wire forming the clamp isrebent to provide an eye 2a while its other end, 21), may be bent toextend through the spring, through the staples 4 driven into the base,and finally through the eye, one end of the spring lying against thebase and the other overlying one leg of the clamp.

5 is the mentioned detent, in this example being formed of a suitablelength of wire. It exists with a coil 5a midway the length of the wireand from the coil the extremities of the wire extend generally in aplane perpendicular to the axis of the coil and have their extremities5b diverging in a direction from said plane and their extreme endsrebent so that the detent is generally hook-shaped. The detent isuniversally pivoted to the base, its coil 50. being penetrated by astaple B driven into the base.

The lever to coact with the detent is indicated at I as formed of wireand is pivoted in the usual way to a staple 8 driven into the base atthe side of the pivoting axis of the clamp opposite to that to which theclamp is normally urged by the spring and beyond the cross-bar 2c of theclamp when the latter is shifted to set position.

To set the trap the clamp is shifted from the position of Fig. 3 to thatof Fig. 1 and the lever made to traverse the transverse portion orcrossbar 2c of the clamp and to extend between the extremities of thedetent and below the seat formed by its diverging portions, whereby toreceive between itself and such seat a crust of bread a or other pieceof food which will resist the stress of the spring. When the bait a issufiiciently disturbed by the rodent the trap ,will be sprung.

If the bait is sufficiently stiii and also long enough to extendappreciably beyond the sides of the detent, more or less as shown inFig. 2, once set the trap can be handled quite roughly without danger ofits being sprung; the detent is hook-shaped so as in baiting the trap toinsure that when the bait has been engaged in its rebend it will remainin a definite position until the lever is allowed to bear against it.Since the detent is universally pivoted to the base it may assume, inthe sprung state of the trap, the prone position shown in dotted outlinein Fig. 2, thus reducing the vertical dimension of the trap and sorendering it more compact for packing. The extremities of the detentdiverge so as to avoid any chance of the lever catching under one ofthem thus to prevent the springing of the trap.

The cross-bar 2c of the clamp should, in the sprung state of the clamp,lie close to the righthand margin of the base for the reasonhereinbefore set forth. According to the usual con struction it isdiflicult to obtain a finger-hold on the clamp in the effort to set thetnap, and when the clamp has been started toward set position itsometimes slips from the operators grip and may snap back on hisfingers. Hence, I form the clamp with projections 2d which will extendbeyond the edge of the base in the sprung state of the clamp; in thisexample these are rebends formed in the wire of the clamp at eachjuncture of its cross-bar with the adjoining parts of the wire. There isa projection at each such juncture so as to be convenient to either arightor left-handed operator.

The detent is universally pivoted to the base for the following reasons:The gap between those portions of its extremities which, on the onehand, reach perpendicularly fromthe axisof coil 5a and, on the otherhand, provide the ends of such extremities should be of such dimension.as to receive av crust of bread of a size to withstand the strainimposed on it when the trap is set. But the cross-wise dimension of thedetent otherwise, as in a direction between said portions and ends ofits extremities, should be considerably less so that the detent mayassume the aforesaid relation to the base in which the trap will be mostcompact for shipping. The universalit of pivotal movement of the detentalso has the advantage that the detent is more delicately responsive todisturbance in the set state of the trap.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In a trap, the combination of a base, a clamp above and confined tothe base to move in a definite upwardly curved path and spring-urgedinto clamping relation to the base at one side of the axis of said path,a lever above the base and pivoted thereto and adapted to traverse theclamp when the latter is displaced around said axis into opposedrelation to the ,portion of the base at the other side of said axis, anda detent above the base having a universal pivotal connection therewithand movable from a recumbent to :an upstanding position and having,projecting from its pivot, fork-forming portions providing spacedbait-supporting seats arranged to face said pivot, said detent being sopositioned relatively to the pivot of the lever that when the lever isin said traversing relation to the clamp said lever may be enteredbetween said fork forming portions to coact with the seats thereof toclamp the bait.

2. Thejtrap set forth in claim 1 characterized by the fork-formingportions of the detent diverging.

JAMES TURPAN.

